Since emerging on the post-pandemic scene like a sleek gator coolly rising from the murky depths of Greenfield Lake, the melodic Wilmington punk rock act Tercel has become a beloved favorite of many a local music aficionado.
With a sound that can range from raucously rowdy to delicately introspective, the band's songs often use poetic lyrics to tackle subjects social, environmental and personal.
On Dec. 5, Tercel — which is Robin Wood on guitar and vocals, Savannah Wood on bass and vocals, Chris Vinopal on guitar and pedal steel, and Taylor Salvetti on drums — will release a self-titled, five-song EP on Wilmington's Fort Lowell Records that was recorded locally at Ian Millard’s Dogwood Studio. That same night, Tercel will play an album release show at public radio station WHQR's MC Erny Gallery.
Standout tracks include the bracing "Heron," which features Savannah Wood's razor-sharp vocals ("I could be your heron heroine") and Robin Wood's loping, punchy guitar work. "Decoder Ring" starts softly before building into Vinopal's otherworldly pedal steel wall of distortion, while lead single/duet "Stuck" has the Woods singing, "World's on fire and I'm not fine/ Can't keep pretending, not this time."
Robin Wood called Tercel "a band that loves louder, punk, aggressive music but also cares a lot about melodies and riffs." Or, as his wife Savannah Wood puts it, "We like to be loud and rock but also sound pretty."
Tercel formed in the late 2010s in a practice space above the old Finkelstein's music store downtown. Robin Wood grew up writing songs and playing in Wilmington bands, but Savannah "had never played before," she said. "I had never sung. I didn't think I had a singing voice."
She came up to the practice space from her old job around the corner at the Edge of Urge boutique "and I was handed a bass," she said. "Within a month we'd played our first show."
That was at a backyard party/house show on South Fourth Street in November 2019, but Tercel — which included Vinopal from the get-go, while Salvetti would join later — didn't get in too many gigs before the pandemic struck.
Once the lockdown eased, the band began rocking venues all over the area, including The Sandspur in Carolina Beach and the late, lamented Opera Room downtown.
Tercel will play anywhere, from the cozy confines of Luna Caffe's Tiny Caffe series to the main stage of the recent Port City Blitz music fest at Waterline Brewing, and they rarely play the same room twice.
Though the band wears its environmental activism on its record jacket — its (un)official mascot is an alligator screaming "Tercel!" designed by Wilmington artist Genna Collier — its songs don't come off as strident because of how the band wraps its stances into lyrics that deepen and personalize their message without sacrificing passion.
"Singing and lyric writing is its own form of poetry," Robin Wood said. "I grew up playing and writing music about how I feel while masking how I feel."
Savannah Wood, a Georgia native who's been in Wilmington for about nine years, said the band's drummer, Salvetti, describes their style as "heavy words thrown lightly," and that writing their songs is "a group effort. Robin and I might come in with an idea or a seed, but it grows in that room" where the band rehearses.
Singing about causes feels very personal to the band, "Especially environmental causes," Savannah Wood said. "It's who Robin is and it's who I've become by being with him. It's right there next to our hearts."
Many Wilmingtonians know Robin Wood's father, the environmentalist and conservationist Andy Wood, who used to record pithy, heartfelt commentaries for WHQR when Robin was growing up. So it'll be a bit of a full-circle moment for him when Tercel steps into the station to play its EP release show Dec. 5.
And while the band has played elsewhere, including in Raleigh at the Hopscotch Music Festival, "Us being a Wilmington band is very much a thing," Robin Wood said.
From playing Wilmington Earth Day at Long Leaf Park to rocking the recent Dram Jam music fest with other Wilmington acts at Dram Tree Tavern in Sunset Park, "2025 has been this year of, it still makes sense to be making music here."
